Germany is guaranteed a place in the Eurovision Song Contest final every year. This is for a different reason than many assumed.

The supposed reason: The big five countries pay the most money into the pot of the organizer, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). However, as journalist Jan Feddersen writes on the German Eurovision website, that is not the only reason.

The regulation dates back to 1996: the German contribution “Planet of the Blue” by pop singer Leon failed to qualify for the final at that time. The ARD then refused to broadcast the final of the competition and banished it to the third program of the NDR. This in turn led to a complaint from the Norwegian broadcaster NRK, because the sponsors who had been recruited had complained about the lack of significant numbers of German viewers.

For this reason, Norwegian television demanded that the “Big Five” be pre-qualified for the final in order to make the most of the great audience potential of the countries. By the way, the “Big Five” were just the “Big Four” at the time, because Italy only returned to the competition in 2011 after a 13-year absence.

Since then, things have gone well for the Italians, with most of their posts finishing in the top ten. The highlight, however, was undoubtedly the victory of the band Måneskin at ESC 2021. However, the pre-qualification did not do the popularity of the other four countries any good. More often than not, their acts end up in the lower ranks – Germany can sing a song about it, too. Although Lena Meyer-Landrut was able to win the contest in 2010, since the rule was introduced there have been four last places, three next to last places, and many other places that have been knocked down.